Art of cleaning cotton.



i. E. MITCHELL 81 D. PARKS.

ART OF CLEANING COTTON APPLICATION FILED APR '2, I915.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN E. MITCHELL AND DENNIS PARKS, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

ART OF CLEANING COTTON.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 9, 1916.

Application filed April 19, 1915. Serial No. 22,273.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JOHN E. MITCHELL and 1)EXNIS PARKS. citizens of the United States, residing in the city of St. Louis and State of Missouri, have invented new and useful Improvements in the Art of Cleaning Cotton, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the art of cleaning cotton, in the practice of which is involved the employment ofmachines of the type heretofore invented by John E. Mitchell, and forming the subject-matter of Letters-Patent No. 1,129,220, dated February 23rd, 1915. Such machines have now been in commercial use for a number of years, and it was early recognized that even under the best conditions of operation a considerable amount of cotton would pass through the machine with the hulls and be wasted. This is due to the fact that if the hull-board, down which the mixed cotton and hulls slide to be projected against the saw cylinder, be adjusted to permit of the ready escape of the hulls past the saw cylinder, a greater or less amount of the cotton in the form of small wads or balls will pass through with them. If, on the other hand, the hull-boa rd is adjusted sufficiently close to the saw cylinder to prevent such escape of cotton, the escape of the bulls from the cleaning chamber past the saw cylinder will not be sorapid, with the result that the cleaning chamber necessarily becomes congested. This is caused by the fact that such close adjustment of the hull-board does not permit the instant discharge of the hulls when they reach the discharge opening.

The hulls being of irregular shape, many of them are carried back up into the cleaning chamber by the saws, and only pass out of the opening when they fall in a certain po sition. This results in causing, an accumulation of hulls in the cleaning chamber, a large percentage of which becomes entangled or rolled up in the bulk cotton, and when so entangled it is dilficult to separate the hulls from the cotton, thus greatly lowering the capacity of the machine. The mass of cotton therein, which, for the best results, should be loose and open, tends to catch up more and more of those hulls, and the latter, as stated, becoming entangled with the cotton, act, as it were, as a binder, and cause the body of cotton to assume somewhat the form of a compact mass,

which gradually increases in bulk as it is spun around by the impact of the saw cylinder, and from which the cotton is not so readily removed by the saws as when the mass of cotton i maintained in the loose and open form. Such relatively compact condition of the cotton also results in the production of a greatly reduced or lower grade of cotton by reason of the bulls entangled with the cotton being broken or cut by repeated contact with the saws and small pieces of the same being carried through withthe cotton. Such result does not occur, however, when the mass of cotton is in loose and open form, and this latter condition of the cotton canonly be maintained by providing for the rapid and continuous discharge of the bulls as fast as they reach the opening between the hull-board and the smv-cylinder, and this latter result, in turn, cannot be accomplished unless the opening between the hull-board and the saw cylinder is as wide as the largest dimension of the hulls. so that none of the hulls, after reaching the discharge opening, can be carried or knocked back into the cleaning chamber by the saws. The close adjustment of the hull board. therefore. while materially decreasing the waste of cotton, also materially decreases the eiliciency of the machine, and is therefore impracticable.

It is the purpose of our present invention to provide a method whereby the above obstaclcs and objections are overcome, and insuring that the cotton shall be thoroughly and rapidly cleaned, while the waste thereof will be rendered negligible. To this end the invention resides, in its broad aspect, in effecting a preliminary separation, in a plurality of cotton cleaning machines, of the major portion of the free cotton from the refuse and hulls, while providing for the free escape of the refuse, bulls and small wads or balls of cotton fr m the cleaning chambers of the machines; and then continuously passing the mixed refuse, bulls and cotton from the first machines to a final machine of the samc construction, but the hull-board of which is adjusted sufli ciently close to the saw cylinder to prevent the pars sage of the balls and wads of cotton past the saw cylinder without being caught up by the saws, while permitting the free escape of the bulls and refuse.

The cotton passing from the final machine may be returned to the distributor supplycotton therein.

ing the preliminary cleaning machines, and

,thus be combined in the said machines with the other cotton, and ultimately passed to the gins: or, said cotton from the final machine, ioeing of a slightly lower grade than the main body of cotton, may be passed to a separate gin and maintained separate from the main'body o cotton. The important results accomplished by our invention, therefore. are, that the main body of cotton is thoroughly cleaned and yields a much higher grade of raw cotton., when ginned. that it has heretofore been found possible to produce, so far as we are aware; while the second body of cotton. a large portion of which has heretofore been wasted, is practically entirely saved.

In order that our invention maybe clearly understood we have illustrated diagranr matically. in the accompanying drawing, the construction and -.irrangemeut of apparatus which we employ.

Referring to the drawin the numerals l. 2 and 3, indicate. respectively. cotton-cleaning machines of the type set forth in the Letters-Patent aforesaid. each of said machines having a hull-board i. saw cylinder 5, dofferroll i. and l\'icl\'erroll 7.

A further description of the machines is considered unnecessary. as the only feature of the machines entering into the present case is the adjustment. of the hull-board relative to the F-ZIW cylinder, and which will be presently referred to.

The numeral 8 indicates a suction-ermduit for drawing the cotton to be cleaned from any source of supply. as a wagon, and the numeral 9 any preferred form of cotton distributer. having branches 10, communicatingwvith the respective cotton-cleaning machines 1,52 and 3.

The numeral 11 indicates a fourth cleaning machine, having the same constriurtion as the other machines. but a dill'erentadjustment of hull-board.

The numeral 12 indicates a conduit having branches l3 communicating with the refuse discharge. outlets of the. respective machines 1, 2 and 3), and coi'ninunicating with the top, orthc cotton-feeding chamber, of the machine 11. Each of the machines 1, J and 3 in practice is placed directly over a gin so that the cot-on passes from each machine directly into the gin. This is illustrated diagramin'atically in the drawing, however, by conduits 11 leading from the c tton-discharge outletof the rcs 'a-ctivc c tton-cleaning machines 1. i5 and 25 to tho gins. The

machine 11 also has a condnitlo leading to agin.and said conduit has a branch 1t: leading back to the distributcr fl, so that the cleaned cotton from the machine, 11 may citherbe sent directly to a gin, or be rcturncd to the ma? chines 1, 2 and 3 and commingled with the It is considered unnecessary to illustrate or refer to such features as valves, fans, suction-chambers, and the like, employ ed in causing the feed and distribution of the cotton, as their construction and operation are well-known, and any preferred arrangement and construction of such devicesmay be empl yed. To simplify the illustration we have therefore indicated the passage of the products y .arrows. and omitted all illus tration of means for causing such passage. liach of the cotton-cl aning machines 1, 2, 5 aml 11 provides a cottoircleaning chamber 1-7. in which the mixed cotton and hulls may be freely agitated by contact with the saw cylinder 5. the cotton being caught up by the teeth of the saw cylinder and carried under the ki ker-roll T and then brushed olf of the saw cylinder by the dolfer-roll (i and discharged into the conduit leading to the gin. lv'icliera'oll T and sliding down the hull board 1 pass through the opening between the lower end of the said hull-board and the.

saw cylinder and ultimately are discharged from the machine. In the case of the final machine if they pass through a conduit 18 to the refuse pile.

ln proceeding according to the pr sent invention the hull-board l in each of the ma pass into the cotton-cleaning chamber therein this machine the hull-board l is adjusted very ll|ll('ll closer to the saw cylinder 5 than in the previous machines. so as to leave a relatively narrow opening :10 between the lower end of the hull board and the saw cylinder. This opening is of such size as to permit the refuse and hulls slid- I log down the hull-board to rapidly pa by the saw cylinder 5. while insuring that all cott n particles will be brought in such. close proximity to the saw cylinder as to be engaged by the teeth thereof and thus be prevented from passing through the opening .20 with the refuse and hulls. This relatively close adjustment of,thc hullboard with respect to the saw cylinder can be employed in the machine ll without the diszulvantagcous results referred to above, owing to the greater proportion, in the product treated. of bulls to cotton, and of the absence of large bunches of cotton. with which the bulls tend to become entaugled, so thatthe hulls pass rapidly out, through thc opening 20, and the cotton is readily "caught up by the saws and separated from the hulls. This The hulls are knocked back by theclose adjustment of the hull-board cannot be employed, however, in the first cleaning operation in the machines 1, 2 and 3, for the reasons heretofore stated. By making the opening 18 sufiiciently large, however, to permit small wads and balls of cotton. as Well as the hulls, to pass through, we prevent all tendency of the hulls to congregate in the cleaning chambers 17 of these ma chines, and subsequently recover the cotton discharged with the hulls from these ma chines by treatment in the cleaning machine 11 in the manner above described.

7e have shown three main or preliminary cleaning machines, as employed in the pres ent arrangement. as we have found in practice that the discharge from these machines will maintain about the proper supply for the machine 11; but the numher of machines employedtcan be varied Without departing from the spirit of the invention. A highly important feature of our invention, ho\v ever, is that we continuously convey the discharge from a plurality of machines to a single machine for treatment. This pro cedure not only provides an adequate sup ply of material for the final machine, thus giving it the requisite efficiency: hut it is also in the interest of simplicity and economy, as obviating the en'iployment of the alternative method of comiluctinp, two cleaning operations in each cleaning machine. Such an arrangement would involve the employment of so many large, complicated and expensive machines as to he wholly imprac ticable.

\Ve claim:

1. In the art of cleaning cotton. the method which consists in uhjecting hulk cotton to the action of a pluralitv of cleaning machines each ol which is adaptcd to remove the main hod v of cotton while pro-,

viding a free discharge for refuse. hulls and small \vads or halls of cotton from the machine, and continuously passing the dis-- charged product from all of said machines to a final cleaning machine adapted to remove the remaining cotton from the hulls and refuse while providing a ready discharge of the hulls and refuse only therefrom.

2. In the art of cleaning cotton, the method which consists in subjecting bulk cotton to the action of a, plurality of clean ing: machines each o'l' which is adapted t remove the main hody of cotton while proriding a tree discharge 'l'or refuse, hulls and small wads or halls of cotton from the machine. continuously passing the discharged product from all of said machines to a final cleaning: machine adapted to remove the reiililllilll if cotton from the hulls and refuse while providing a ready disciarge of the hulls and refuse only therefrom, and continu usly returning thc cotton recovered from the latter machine to the previous machines.

1. In the art of cleaning cotton, the method which consists in selectively sepa rating: a portion of cotton from the hulls in cacli of a plurality of machines. and dis charging therefrom the remaining cotton with the hulls. continuously passing the discharged product from all of said machines into a final niachinc. and therein effecting a separation of thc remaining cotton from the hulls. and cominuouslv returning the cotton IW'OYUH'll from the linal machine to the first namcd marhincs.

-l. lu thiart of cleaning cotton. the method which consists in separately treat" in l l bli portions of holly cotton in each of a plurality of holl hrcaltcrs and cleaners, dc livcrin; the cleaned seed cotton to a separate gin from cach holl cleaner. and combining the \vastc hulls from the holl cleaners t0- g'ethcr with the cotton remaining thcrevvith for inrihcr cleaning and treatment, the result in sci-d and lint cotton hcing adapted to he tcd dirccilv hack to the original supply d to the lirstnncntioncd holl cleaner or to a gin.

In testimony whereof, we have hereunto set our hands.

JOHN E. MIT CHELIL. DENNIS PARKS. 

